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100 YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA

Indian Cinema... the idea of it and its reality are alike India, a vast palette of styles, languages, sensibilities, heroes and heroines. When the Lumiere brothers' short films were screened for the first time at the Watson Hotel in Bombay in 1896, how many audience members would have dreamt of what was to become the most prolific movie industry in the world?

As Indian Cinema enters a new century of history, we cannot help but celebrate! On this same day (April 21) in the year 1913, Dadasaheb Phalke saw his Raja
Harishchandra screened at the Olympia Theatre in Bombay, marking the first time a full-length feature film made in India would be shown to an Indian audience.

Indian cinema remains difficult to grasp or define in a single sentence. Ranging from silent films to black and white or colorized versions of timeless classics to the current multiplex blockbusters, what remains constant is the will to entertain. Directors have created formulaic or avant-garde plots for the benefit of the audiences for almost a century.

Let's celebrate and smile to many more centuries of Indian entertainment!

Despite all the new stylistic effects and those borrowed from Hollywood, let's hope Indian cinema stays true to its roots and continues to show glimpses of what makes it one of the most iconic industries in the world today (I think I have encapsulated the heritage of Indian cinema in my debut Bollywood screenplay...)